Wheeled vehicles, such as automobiles, customarily include hubcaps that typically cover a central portion of the wheels of the vehicle both for protection, e.g., corrosion and impact resistance, and aesthetics, e.g., color and shine. One type of hubcap, a bolt-on hubcap, typically attaches to the vehicle via nutcaps threaded onto lugnuts of the vehicle.
Vehicle consumers increasingly expect aesthetically-pleasing bolt-on hubcaps, and, as such, chrome-plated bolt-on hubcaps are a popular design feature for vehicles. During forming, chrome-plated bolt-on hubcaps typically undergo an electroplating surface treatment which dips a raw, preform hubcap in a series of chemical baths, e.g., copper, nickel, and chrome, and results in a shiny, aesthetically-pleasing hubcap.
Problematically, however, the scrap rate for such hubcaps may be high. For example, existing chrome-plated bolt-on hubcaps include design features, such as standoffs, which allow chemical bath pooling in the hubcap during electroplating surface treatment. Chemical bath pooling contributes to bath tank contamination as the hubcap is dipped in subsequent bath tanks, and may result in substantial processing time delay and added processing costs while the chemical baths are decontaminated. Additionally, chemical bath pooling may decrease the effectiveness of the electroplating surface treatment and may produce an imperfect chrome-plating, i.e., a non-shiny, non-aesthetically-pleasing hubcap that is unacceptable to vehicle manufacturers and consumers. Such unacceptable hubcaps are scrapped and must be reprocessed, thereby further contributing to processing time delay and added processing costs.
Further, existing chrome-plated bolt-on hubcaps may also suffer from chrome-cracking, i.e., cracking of the chrome-plating, during attachment to the vehicle. In particular, as the nutcaps are threaded onto and tighten against the lugnuts of the vehicle, substantial force is applied to the hubcap, which may result in chrome-cracking. Chrome-cracking contributes both to decreased customer satisfaction and increased warranty costs for vehicle manufacturers.
Existing chrome-plated bolt-on hubcaps often include at least one standoff per lug of the vehicle in an attempt to reduce the force applied to the hubcap during nutcap tightening, and thereby reduce the incidence of chrome-cracking. However, an increased number of standoffs provides an increased opportunity for chemical bath pooling and the associated disadvantages thereof, and also contributes to increased hubcap weight and processing costs.